The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1)

Synopsis:

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus' stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

I can't believe it took me so long to read a Percy Jackson book. I have wanted to for so long... but just had lots of things to do or simply had lots of books to read. But I finally did, even if it was a long time after I saw the movie. That's something I hardly ever do, because I hate having someone in mind when I try to picture the characters in my head. But that's something every bookworm feels, right?
Well, after reading the book, long after watching the movie, I was completely confused. I felt like the book and the movie had the same name and the same main characters, both plots went about demigods and about a missing lightning, but that was when the similarities stopped. The story is not the same!! How can Rick Riordan let this happen? I someone did that to one of my books, my complaint would be huge...

I loved the book. It was awesome, way better than I expected after watching the movie. Easy to read, really well-written. The movie was good, on the other hand, but different. The movie was way more simple, perfect for a younger aundience, while the book was more interesting because the story was more developped and complicated. 

I really like how Riordan develops his characters, how nothing is as simple as it seems, but not with too much fantasy, just the perfect amount of everything. IGreat imagination, I just found really weird that Percy in the book is 12 years old. I feel like that's part of trying to make a series as good and long as Harry Potter, allowing the character to grow up and stuff. But I feel like Percy and his friends don't act like twelve-year-olds. Never. What 12-year-old kid would cross the US while looking for something that they don't know it's there for sure? 

Just so you know, the book is amazing, and I just hope the rest of Rick Riordan's work is as wonderful. The movie was nice, but it was a different story. I'm kind of glad I didn't read the book before the movie came out, because I would've been so, so, so upset... But the book, which is what I'm talking about here, was great. Everyone should read it, no matter how old they are.